The Tampa Bay Rays lost Game 2 of the 2026 World Series 5-4, gave back a four-run first-inning lead, and are now down 0-2 in the series. While Milwaukee celebrated its comeback at American Family Field, the conversation landed in the same familiar place: Kevin Cash and the calls he makes when they matter most.
The ninth inning: the bunt Cash never called
The Rays entered the ninth trailing 5-4 — and put the tying run on second base with nobody out. Ninety feet from a tie, three outs to work with. Cash did not call for a bunt to move the runner to third.
Modern baseball has data-backed arguments against sacrificing an out to gain a base — the numbers often say don’t do it. But context matters: who’s hitting, how fast is the runner, who’s pitching. What’s not debatable is that the play didn’t work. Tampa Bay didn’t score, and Milwaukee closed it out.
On top of that, Cash left lefty Ian Seymour (13-10, 4.03 ERA in his MLB career) in to face lefty Aaron Ashby, who was already in the game. Lefty-on-lefty splits almost always favor the pitcher. It was a textbook spot to make a move — pinch hitter or pitching change. Cash made neither.
The ghost of Blake Snell — and what Cash’s track record shows
The 2020 World Series never really goes away. Game 6, Snell was dealing, the Rays were winning — and Cash pulled him. The Dodgers scored, won the game, won the Series. It became the most debated tactical call in recent postseason memory, and Cash carried it for years.
Now in 2026, a different shape, the same story.
Tampa Bay arrived at this World Series with a 98-64 regular-season record. Drew Rasmussen has been a postseason machine: 2-0, 1.29 ERA, 0.76 WHIP across 21 innings this October. The talent is real. The question fans are asking — loudly — is whether the manager is rising to the moment.
To be fair: Cash has won Manager of the Year and taken the Rays to two World Series. He’s not a disaster across the board. But there’s a pattern. His decisions at the most critical postseason moments keep generating conversation for the wrong reasons.
Can Tampa Bay climb out of 0-2?
Hard? Yes. Impossible? No. Historically, falling behind 0-2 in the World Series is a deep hole — most teams don’t climb out of it. But it’s not a death sentence either.
The series shifts to Tampa Bay for Games 3 and 4 — Monday, October 26 at Tropicana Field — and the Rays will be home. Milwaukee, meanwhile, has the wind at its back: it swept the Dodgers in the NLCS, and Ashby closed out Game 2 by retiring the final five batters without breaking a sweat.
For Tampa Bay, the tactical question isn’t just whether they can come back. It’s whether Cash will make different calls the next time the game is on the line.
